By Saturday things had settled back into normalcy. The Making of Spaceships was just as boring of a class on wednesday and friday as it had been on Monday. Tuesday and Thursday's flight training had been bookwork supervised by Mr. Da Silva. Jim was tired of being called "Gatinhos".

Today was their physical day. The first years were huddled into the gymnasium with them again. Sergeant Wilskin and Mr. Parr stood together at the front of the room. The feline looked smug enough to be purring.

"Good morning recruits!" Sergeant Wilskin's voice was dangerously happy. The older boys flinched. Last time they had heard that tone was last year before she had made them wade through chest deep mud searching to recover "enemy intelligence" that had been "misplaced". They had been at it until dinner before she informed them that she had been given the "wrong coordinates" and that they'd try again next week.

The innocent first years looked up at her with trust.

"As you may know, Mr. Parr is new to our facility, he signed on specifically to work with you this year! He's brought some interesting new ideas to the program. Today we shall be having a ping pong tournament."

The first years let out whoops of joy. The second years stood stunned and confused. Mr. Parr crossed the room and lifted up a large table. He carried it to the middle of the gymnasium and set it down in front of Sergeant Wilskin. He pulled two paddles from his pocket and twirled them across his fingers.

"Braxton Rudforest. Experiment 628. Since you won the obstacle course last week, you two will be playing the first round!" Mr. Parr's deep voice reverberated around the room. Braxton picked up 628. The small alien wrapped his arms around the older boy's chest.

"Don't worry, little buddy. We did win. We'll be alright." Braxton said, though he did not sound convinced himself. He scratched 628's ears and went to collect the paddles.

Mr. Parr looked down at the tiny alien that dangled from his friend's torso. "Well this will be an interesting matchup. I'll go and get you some of those wrestling mats to stand on." He walked off to the storage closet, leaving the rest of the room in silence. Sergeant Wilskin's tail twitched slowly back and forth behind her.

Mr. Parr returned and set a stack of mats down on the left side of the table. He adjusted them slightly so that 628 had a platform to play on. "That should do!" He nodded to the small alien. "Pop on up there, let me make sure I've got that the right height for you!"

Braxton set the experiment down on top of the mats. 628 scampered back and forth before breaking out into a beaming smile. "Morcheeba!"

Mr. Parr handed Braxton a ping pong ball. The older boy took his place at the other end of the table.

"Oh, Sargent, did I say that these two would be having the first game? I meant the only one." Faces fell around the class as Mr. Parr turned to the recruits. "You'll be running laps today! Whenever Recruit Rudford misses a ball, Sergeant Wilskin will blow her whistle once. You'll stop and do twenty push ups. Whenever Recruit 628 misses a ball, she will blow her whistle twice. You'll stop and do twenty sit ups."

"Yes sir." The reluctant class responded in unison.

"Start running."

The herd of students took off. Jim fell into pace beside Sy and Matt. From the center of the room the soft poc-poc of a ball bouncing off tables and paddles reminded the recruits of last week's failure.

"Don't try and prove anything, Sy." Matt said. "Slow and steady, you want stamina not speed."

Jim nodded to Hogarth as he tore past the group. "He'll be gasping for breath in about three laps, five if he's got good endurance. You don't want to be struggling to catch your breath while running. It'll make your lungs burn."

Beside them Asterism spoke up. "Oh yes Syleven, listen to the grounders. After all, they wouldn't let you get hurt." He gestured in emphasis towards his still bandaged ankle. Unable to run, he was stuck to limping his way around the laps.

Jim spoke up swiftly in Matt's defense. "Leave him alone. It's not like he tried to hurt you."

"You wouldn't know, would you Hawkins? You were too busy letting Syleven ruin his hands for you. Seems like the only thing your class is learning is how to sacrifice the lower ranking recruits to help yourselves."

Sy picked up his pace slightly. "Come on. We don't need to listen to th-" the sharp blow of a whistle cut off his sentence. The entire class dropped to the floor.